Swarming Robots Benefit from Starling Study

The Swirling
Brain sent us a link to a Telegraph
story about a new Starling study that will benefit robot swarming
technology. Previous computer models of flocking birds assumed each bird
interacted with all other birds in the flock. The new study, which
included accurate 3D tracking information on over 3,000 birds, reveals
that each Starling tracks six or seven other Starlings, regardless of
their changing distance. This explains why flocks expand and contract so
quickly and accurately after predator attacks. Each bird continues to
track its selected neighbors even when they spread out, allow them to
quickly reassemble into a tight group. This new information gave
scientists the clue they needed to solve
the flocking problem in a way that should make more accurate flocking
and swarming behaviors in robots possible. This research is part of the European
STARFLAG project. The study itself is available onilne: Interaction Ruling Animal
Collective Behaviour Depends on Topological rather than Metric Distance:
Evidence from a Field Study (PDF format).